Particle.news
Download on the App Store

Highguard to Shut Down on March 12 After Brief, Faltering Launch

Wildlight says the game could not sustain a paying audience.

Overview

  • Servers will go offline on March 12, with a farewell update already released that added a new Warden, a new weapon, account-level progression and skill trees.
  • Highguard drew roughly 97,000 concurrent players on Steam at launch but lost over 90% within days and was struggling to top 1,000 daily players within weeks.
  • Game director Chad Grenier said there was not enough revenue to keep developers employed on the project.
  • Wildlight laid off most of the team within weeks of release, leaving a small group to stabilize and close out the game.
  • Reports say Tencent secretly funded the project and later withdrew support after weak results, a claim not confirmed by the company, as the collapse is cited as part of a broader live-service downturn.